1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a loading device for a horizontal continuous furnace for heating glass plates to bending or tempering temperature, comprising a roller conveyer with at least one feed station superposed on the conveying system of the continuous furnace. Support strips are arranged between the conveying rollers. The support strips can be lowered below the conveying surface onto which the glass plates are placed. They can be positioned in a raised condition and, at a proper time, simultaneously lowered for transfer of the glass plates to the roller conveyer.
2. Discussion of the Background
In known loading devices of this kind, the support strips that can be lowered are arranged on a common frame. After placing the glass plate or glass plates on the support strips, which can be done manually or mechanically, the entire frame with the support strips is lowered with the help of a lifting device and the glass plates are transferred to the conveying rollers by which they are transported into the furnace. As soon as the area of the roller conveyer above the support strips has become empty, the frame with the support strips is raised by the lifting device and the next glass plate or the next glass plates can be placed on the support strips and positioned on these support strips.
Exact positioning of the glass plates on the support strips as well as lowering the support strips at the specified times is important for the present automatic continuous furnaces to guarantee, on the one hand, a specific final temperature of the glass plates within narrow tolerance limits and to ensure, on the other hand, that the glass plates occupy a predetermined position in the processing station after the continuous furnace, which can involve, e.g., a bending station. In the case of continuous furnaces with high throughput, the station time with which the glass plates follow right behind one another in close proximity can become relatively short, so that the time available after raising of the support strips for placing and aligning the next glass plate or glass plates becomes extremely short and is insufficient, e.g., for careful aligning of the glass plates.